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Toronto FC general manager Tim Bezbatchenko said it best last month when he discussed how the players felt about a series of high-profile acquisitions made in the off-season.

“They know it’s a new ball game here,” he told reporters.

The fans know it, too.

The hired guns brought on board by Toronto FC have created a buzz that soccer fans in this city could never have imagined.

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The first big catch was the signing in December of Gilberto, a pure goal scorer from Brazil.

Who knew that a seismic shift in the MLS and Toronto landscape was still in the offing?

In early January, Toronto FC struck. The team announced that it had acquired England and Tottenham Hotspur striker Jermain Defoe and Italian Serie A club A.S. Roma midfielder Michael Bradley.

The combined value of transfer fees and salaries for the two men reached $100 million.

TFC more than quadrupled Defoe’s salary to $8 million a year. The diminutive striker is Tottenham’s fifth highest scorer of all time and the all-time leader in European goals.

Bradley gets an even bigger bump, a six-year, $36 million contract that represents a 600 per cent increase over what he was reported to be earning in Italy.

To put an exclamation mark on their efforts to turn around a losing franchise, Toronto FC acquired Brazilian goalkeeper Julio Cesar in February.

When you throw in returning Canadian star Dwayne De Rosario, you have five players who are about to transform the sports landscape in this city.

Jermain Defoe

Defoe, 31, was the last of the illustrious group to arrive in Toronto and he showed off a strong kicking foot at practice on Monday. Commitments to Tottenham and to England meant Defoe missed all of the team’s pre-season.

Born in working-class Beckton in east London, Defoe was captain of his school’s soccer team at age 6 and started playing professionally when he was 16. A devout Christian, he believes his goal-scoring talent is a gift from God.

TFC head coach Ryan Nelsen said that Defoe is a proud player who is anxious to show Toronto FC what he can do.

“Any professional player wants to show his skills and his qualities on any stage, and he’s a really proud guy,” Nelsen said.

Defoe also has this summer’s World Cup in the back of his mind. “As long as he’s fit and he’s playing well, then he’ll be up for selection like any other player,” Nelsen said.

Defoe also has July 23 circled on his calendar. That’s when Tottenham will be in Toronto for a friendly.

“It will be strange,” the striker admitted.

For now, however, Defoe said it’s important for him to put Toronto FC at the forefront and to make sure his form is good. “As a forward, you know, you get judged on scoring goals.”

Nelsen said it will take some time for Defoe to find his rhythm in the new league. He will have to become more acquainted with the players and the system that Toronto FC plays.

Toronto’s first game is Saturday in Seattle against the Sounders. Many of the newcomers like Defoe will have to face the adjustment of playing their first game on artificial turf.

Said Defoe: “Even training today, it was the first time in years where I’ve actually trained on this kind of surface. But I suppose it’s something you’re going to have to get used to and you can’t make excuses because it’s the same for both teams.”

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Michael Bradley

Bradley, 26, likes the pressure that comes with the big off-season splash.

“There’s a commitment and there’s a determination in every guy here to forget about everything that’s happened in the past and let this be the start of something new,” Bradley said in an interview recently.

Bradley was being pursued by major clubs across Europe, with particular interest from Germany’s Bundesliga. Choosing MLS and Toronto FC instead represented an enormous vote of confidence in where the club is headed.

Like Defoe, Bradley turned pro at age 16, playing in MLS for the MetroStars, a club now known as New York Red Bulls. He was drafted 36th overall in 2004 and played little his first year because of a foot injury.

For all the off-season signings and buzz that was created, Bradley said the season didn’t become real in his mind until he saw Defoe in the Toronto FC locker room.

“Okay, we can start now,” he thought.

“I think it kind of gives everybody the sense that we’re getting going,” Bradley told reporters. “The season is starting. At this point, we’re really excited to get going.”

Although Steven Caldwell is captain of the team, Bradley also expects to take on a leadership role.

“I’m excited (about the season). That’s why I’m here,” Bradley said. “The thing about being a leader is that it starts with how you play. You can talk about being a leader, but the most important thing is leading by example. You’ll never have any credit within the group if you talk and talk and talk, but every time you step on the field, it’s no good.”

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Gilberto

Gilberto, 24, is on record as wanting to score 25 times this season, and Defoe is projected to score that many and more.

Toronto FC is a team that has frustrated its fans by failing to score many goals. The club has yet to make the playoffs in its seven-year history and last season finished with a 6-17-11 record. In those 34 games, the team only scored 30 goals and gave up 47.

The acquisition of Gilberto is a coup for the North American league, which in the past has relied on overseas stars who were past their prime.

Gilberto signed his first professional contract with Brazilian club Santa Cruz in 2009 after two years in the youth program. In two seasons, he made 21 appearances and scored 12 goals. Gilberto moved to Sport Club Internacional in 2011 and then played for Sport Club do Recife during the 2012 season and Portuguesa in 2013.

This season, playing in Brazil’s top division for Portuguesa, Gilberto scored 14 goals in 28 games. In four seasons in the Brazilian Serie A, he has made 109 appearances with 38 goals and 10 assists.

Gilberto turned down deals in Mexico, Germany and other countries to choose Toronto FC and MLS.

Speaking at media day in early February, coach Nelsen said he doesn’t mind that Gilberto, for instance, has publicly set a 25-goal objective for himself this season.

“Some people thrive off that kind of stuff,” the coach said of Gilberto’s target. “Some people are motivated by targets. If he gets it, will I be doing cartwheels? Yes.”

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Julio Cesar

Cesar, 34, signed a loan deal with the MLS club as he looks to get playing time ahead of this summer’s World Cup in Brazil, his home country.

Cesar had been relegated to a backup role with second-tier English club Queens Park Rangers. Toronto FC head coach Nelsen is a former teammate of Cesar’s at QPR and had a big hand in acquiring the goalkeeper.

Cesar, who’s played for Brazil in international competition 77 times, won the Copa America in 2004 and the Confederations Cup on two occasions.

Before his stint at Queens Park Rangers, he also played at Inter Milan, where he won five Italian league titles Additionally, he’s won three Coppa Italia titles, the 2010 UEFA Champions League and the 2010 Club World Cup.

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Dwayne De Rosario

Toronto selected the 35-year-old De Rosario in the MLS re-entry draft in December after D.C. United opted not to pick up his option at the end of the season.

A native of Toronto, De Rosario ranks sixth on the MLS career scoring list with 103 goals. Twenty-seven of those came in a Toronto FC jersey from 2009 to 2011.

De Rosario left Toronto in a contract dispute. However, the attacking midfielder said he is happy to be back and has unfinished business.

When asked for his thoughts on his teammate Gilberto’s lofty ambitions to score 25 goals this season, hometown star De Rosario had a tongue-in-cheek response.

“I just want to score one first,” said De Rosario, who won the MLS Golden Boot in 2011 with 16 goals.

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Nick Hagglund

Amid all the hype over the big signings, the acquisition of Nick Hagglund has been almost a footnote. Yet Hagglund, 21, was the first-overall pick of Toronto FC and 10th overall in the draft out of Xavier University in Cincinnati, where he spent four seasons.

He made 81 appearances, starting in 80, while scoring four goals and adding 11 assists. Hagglund was named Big East Defensive Player of the year for 2013, along with first team All-Big East honours.

He said the biggest adjustment from the college level is that Major League Soccer is more of a “thinking man’s game.”

In this league, every player is physically fit and tough. “The thinking man is going to win the battle in the MLS,” Hagglund said.

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